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Fall 2013 Class Speakers

Michele Ellson

Over her two decades as a journalist, Michele Ellson’s work has appeared in more newspapers than she can count. In 2004 she was part of a team of reporters who won the Society of Professional Journalists’ Sigma Delta Chi award for investigative reporting for a series that exposed questionable homeland security grant spending practices, and in 2007, she won an Associated Press News Executives Council award for a four-part expose on substandard care in homes for developmentally disabled people that led the state to resume annual inspections of the homes. In 2008 she started a pioneering local news website, The Island, which reached a peak monthly audience of 16,000 and, through a partnership with The Bay Citizen, earned her a byline in The New York Times. Her work has also appeared in the Sacramento Bee, the San Jose Mercury News, the Oakland Tribune and the Contra Costa Times. Her current project, The Alamedan, is on track to reach 10,000 readers a month, and its work is featured on SFGate’s In Alameda blog and in the Alameda Sun. You can reach Michele at michele@thealamedan.org.

Kip Welch, Vice President, Business Development, MovieLabs, has a legal background and considerable experience crafting complex technology business agreements. While at Intel Corporation, he served as director of legal affairs for the Digital Home Group, the business unit responsible for leading Intel’s drive into the consumer electronics business and the development of consumer and media entertainment PCs, and where he also led the legal team for the launch of Intel Viiv technology. Kip has extensive experience dealing with business and legal issues related to IP licensing, media technology, content protection, ecosystem enabling, and industry standards efforts. Prior to Intel, he served as vice president and general counsel for MicroProse, Inc., an entertainment software company acquired by Hasbro in 1998, and as an attorney with the law firm of Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison. He has a B.A. in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin, and a J.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Daniel Borenstein, columnist and editorial writer, Contra Costa Times/Oakland Tribune/Bay Area News Group, is an award-winning columnist and editorial writer for the Bay Area News Group, which includes the Contra Costa Times, Oakland Tribune and San Jose Mercury News. He has worked for the Times and its affiliated newspapers since 1980, including previous assignments as political editor, Sacramento bureau editor, projects editor and assistant metro editor.

A Bay Area native and Contra Costa County resident, he holds undergraduate degrees in journalism and political science and master’s degrees in public policy and journalism, all from University of California, Berkeley.

His weekly column often focuses on public finance issues, including columns during the past four years on government employee pensions. Those columns have helped shaped public policy at the local and state levels.

Borenstein is regarded by many as one of the most knowledgeable journalists in California when it comes to public pensions. His pension columns have won the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists Excellence in Journalism Award for commentary and Freedom of Information Award for column writing, and the California Newspaper Publishers Association awards for column writing and public service.

Sherry Hu, Director of OUSD Student Websites/Former KPIX Reporter, just retired from her 30 plus year career with CBS 5 Eyewitness News. Hu, an Oakland native, is an Emmy award winner, and three-time nominee. She has also earned first place honors from the Associated Press Television-Radio Association of California, The Northern California Radio-Television News Directors Association, The Peninsula Press Club, and The California Bar Association. Hu is recognized around the Bay Area for her leadership and contributions to community events, fundraisers and organizations. She’s especially fond of groups that promote and celebrate education, animals and volunteerism. She has spent time as a classroom volunteer and reading tutor at Lincoln Elementary School in Oakland’s Chinatown. She is a mentor to students and aspiring journalists. Hu has been honored by the Marcus A. Foster Educational Institute as a distinguished alumnus for her commitment to young people. Prior to joining CBS 5, Hu’s media experience included work at KALX on the University of California Berkeley campus, KPFA in Berkeley and K-101 in San Francisco. Born in Honolulu, Hawaii and raised in Oakland, Hu is a proud graduate of the public school system in Oakland. She graduated from the University of California Berkeley.

Shaun Tai, Founder and Executive Director of Oakland Digital, is the founder and Executive Director of Oakland Digital (ODALC), a volunteer-driven California not-for-profit, public benefit organization that makes Internet education more relevant and provides low-income communities with the tools they need to be effective 21st-century citizens and productive members of the increasingly digital economy. In 2008, Shaun Tai successfully documented the history of Bay Area urban music, creating an online campaign that exceeded 14-million video views. The project opened his eyes to a lack of positive role-models and opportunities afforded to young adults in East Bay inner-city communities—a realization that would play a large part in his decision to create Oakland Digital. Shaun Tai has taught at San Jose State University, where he received a B.S in Advertising Management (Magna Cum Laude) and an M.A in Architectural & Urban Design (4.0 GPA). In 2002, Shaun Tai graduated honors from California State University, East Bay with a B.A in Digital Graphics. At Oakland Digital, his success in digital entrepreneurship is lent to the task of helping Oakland citizens use technology to succeed in their own ventures.

Seth Rosenfeld, freelance journalist based in San Francisco, is the author of the best-selling book Subversives: The FBI’s War on Student Radicals, and Reagan’s Rise to Power, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.Rosenfeld was an investigative reporter for the San Francisco Examiner and San Francisco Chronicle and has won the George Polk Award and other journalism honors.

Kip Welch, Vice President, Business Development, MovieLabs, has a legal background and considerable experience crafting complex technology business agreements. While at Intel Corporation, he served as director of legal affairs for the Digital Home Group, the business unit responsible for leading Intel’s drive into the consumer electronics business and the development of consumer and media entertainment PCs, and where he also led the legal team for the launch of Intel Viiv technology. Kip has extensive experience dealing with business and legal issues related to IP licensing, media technology, content protection, ecosystem enabling, and industry standards efforts. Prior to Intel, he served as vice president and general counsel for MicroProse, Inc., an entertainment software company acquired by Hasbro in 1998, and as an attorney with the law firm of Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison. He has a B.A. in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin, and a J.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Jackie Northam, Foreign Affairs correspondent for NPR news. The veteran journalist has more than two decades of experience covering the world’s hot spots and reporting on a broad tapestry of international and foreign policy issues.Based in Washington, D.C., Northam is assigned to the leading stories of the day, traveling regularly overseas to report the news – from Afghanistan and Pakistan, to earthquake-ravaged Haiti.Northam just completed a five year stint as NPR’s National Security Correspondent, covering US defense and intelligence policies. She led the network’s coverage of the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, traveling regularly to the controversial base to report on conditions there, and on US efforts to prosecute detainees.Northam spent more than a decade as a foreign correspondent. She reported from Beirut during the war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006, from Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein, and from Saudi Arabia during the first Gulf War. She lived in and reported extensively from Southeast Asia, Indochina, and Eastern Europe, where she charted the fall of communism. While based in Nairobi, Kenya, Northam covered the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. She managed to enter the country just days after the slaughter of ethnic Tutsis began by hitching a ride with a French priest who was helping Rwandans escape to neighboring Burundi.A native of Canada, Northam’s first overseas reporting post was London, where she spent seven years covering stories on Margaret Thatcher’s Britain and efforts to create the European Union.Northam has received multiple journalism awards during her career, including Associated Press awards, regional Edward R. Murrow awards, and was part of an NPR team journalists that won an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award.